It will take a few years to get the gardens blooming, but a newly signed lease virtually guarantees that the long-planned Delaware Botanic Gardens will be making a home in Sussex County.

The botanic gardens’ board of directors and the Sussex County Land Trust signed a 99-year-lease late last month that formally secures a property east of Dagsboro as the future site of the nature-based attraction.

“The lease was an important and historic milestone for us to achieve this year,” Delaware Botanic Gardens spokesman Ray Sander said. “It’s wooded, with a beautiful slope, wetlands and waterfront. It was unbelievable when the board found this. It has so many features that youwouldn’t expect to find on one site in Sussex County.”

The planned location of the gardens is off Piney Neck Road, on a 37.5-acre property that has been in the Sussex County Land Trust (SCLT) program for about a decade, Sander said. Michael Zajic, a founder and president of the Delaware Botanic Gardens’ board, said the project would not have been solidified without the lease agreement.

“My board and I are equally committed to living up to the high standards the SCLT has set and to creating a beautiful, educational, public space for all Sussex residents and for visitors from our state and from across Delmarva,” he said in a press release. “Now that we have taken the first step in making this dream a reality, we must begin the task of raising the funds needed to build this vision of accessible and sustainable recreational open space.”

After Delaware Botanic Gardens obtained nonprofit status nearly two years ago, the project’s board of directors looked at about a dozen different locations throughout the state – mainly in Sussex County – before finding the perfect fit with the help of the Sussex County Land Trust. For $1 a year, the future gardens will blossom on a tract that features flat land previously used farmland, mature woodlands, wetlands and 1,000 feet of waterfront along Pepper Creek.

Sander said he now expects a groundbreaking to take place in early spring of 2015, with the goal of opening the garden gates for the June summer solstice in 2016. The entire project will still be a work in progress, but Sander said he expects the first phase – completion of the woodland gardens – to be open and ready for visitors by then.

“[The woodland gardens] have a fantastic palate of colors and mature trees, and we’ll be putting in flowers and other attractions,” he said. “We will start [working on that] as early as this spring, possibly in the fall. We’ll start clearing the invasives, laying out trails and pathways along natural contours of land so people can walk along.”

Delaware Botanic Gardens

The Delaware Botanic Gardens is a ten-year, multiphase plan to bring a sense of place to Delmarva with a major public garden that reflects southern Delaware’s unique coastal plain. Its mission is to create inspirational, educational, and sustainable gardens in Delaware for the benefit and enjoyment of residents and visitors alike. The gardens will be located on 37 acres along Piney Neck Road in Sussex County. The parcel has an ideal mix of farmland, woodland, and more than 1,000 feet of tidal waterfront on Pepper Creek.

DELAWARE BOTANIC GARDENS

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Stages of the garden's creation during the multiyear effort to Open the Garden Gates:

Groundbreaking

Build the basics

Begin programs

Enlarge the endowment

Purchase initial plantings and use donated plant materials

Install temporary modular buildings

Hire the initial staff

Grand opening

Develop individual gardens

Add special features

Finish plantings

Build the staff

Final stages

Complete large permanent structures

Fully staff all operations

This botanic garden will become a special place that will enhance the quality of life here in Sussex County. Our residents and our visitors will treasure this botanic garden, which will also serve to educate all to understand the value of conservation. In keeping with the overall mission of the SCLT, the Botanic Gardens at Pepper Creek will enable us to pass on the best of our values to the next generation.